Can't fix this on my own
by TheCrowMaiden
Summary: Julius Monrey and Alice Liddell one-shot, requested by a friend. I've only ever read the manga, haven't played the game. Cute love, Julius' POV


Julius lived his life with the clocks. Same pattern, same rhythm, day in day out.

Tick tock

Tick tock

It was comfortable. There was nothing to disrupt it. Few to no visitors, and a job most found so distasteful he could avoid going anywhere outside his own world.

And then Peter White had to go and bring _her_ to the land of hearts.

That had been several months ago now. She had grown on him, making him coffee and helping to repair the clocks. He had been stunned when she had not fled from "the mortician", and had instead become closer to him, praising the magic he was capable of as he gently coaxed damaged gears and movements back into motion. Julius wondered if she realized how badly she had damaged the rhythm of his own gears.

Tick tick tock

Tick tock tick tick tock

He pressed his hand to his chest. Was it really possible to exist with such a severe malfunction? It seemed like it got worse with every passing season, and soon, she had been there for a year. And his clock ran even faster.

Tick tick tick tock

Tick tock tick tick tock tock tock

Was his life running out from the increased beats? Surely she must be able to hear it herself. Hear the way her smile made the pattern in his chest shift into something that sounded like Gowland playing his violin with broken crockery. Hear how her patting his hand could make the cacophony stop dead unhealthily.

When she went out to play at the amusement park he welcomed the chance to regain his composure, when she visited the Hatter he ground his teeth and resisted the urge to throw his toolkit out the window. He tried to not even _think_ about Peter. Ever since he'd caught him in her bed (in his rabbit form), his glasses practically fogged up with an unpleasant emotion. Like anger. He was pretty sure it was anger.

And then to try and control himself, he would sip at his coffee. Julius would never admit it, but there was a deeply selfish reason he had never given her full marks on her coffee. Somewhere in the back of his mind there was a fear that when she had passed that final test, she would leave.

Or love him. He…Wasn't sure which one bothered him more.

Tick tick tick tick tick tock tock tick tock ti-tock ti-tock

Probably the first option.

Sipping at her most recent coffee (91 points), Julius tried to use the normal clocks to steady himself, but it was pointless. He could no longer focus properly on his work. She had become an uncontrollable part of his routine, and there was nothing he could do about it, except put himself out of his misery.

If she left, he knew his clock would stop. The gears would grind to such an abrupt halt that even if they fixed it, the person reborn from it would likely die of a heart…clock attack.

But if she stayed, then maybe, maybe he could let the beating of her gentle heart steady the erratic rhythm of his own.

It was near midnight by now, but he didn't stop his work. His cup was long empty, and only his focus on the job at hand could temporarily banish his longing. It was a particularly damaged clock, after all.

(Had this clock been in love too?)

Sometime in the early dawn, he finished and carefully put the repaired clock in a box. Taking his glasses off, he carefully cleaned them and re-settled them on the bridge of his nose, only to find a full cup of coffee by one elbow and the girl who haunted his thoughts at the other, asleep in her nightgown.

TICKTICKTICKTOCKTI-TOCKTI-TOCKTOCKTI-TI-TOCK

Julius once again pressed a hand over his clock, desperately trying to muffle the sound, but to no avail.

She opened her eyes, and the look she gave him once more had the effect of jarring his rhythm mid-tock. Her gaze flickered from the coffee to his face, the question plain in her expression.

Because it gave him something to do, not because of that look, he carefully took a sip. And the traitorous words slipped out on their own.

"Full marks"

With her smile rivalling the light streaming through the window, she carefully put her arms around him.

And with her heart pressed to his chest, their beats mingling, she whispered the words he had longed to hear for so, so long.

"I love you too."

Tick ba-dum tock

Tick ba-dum tock

Alice's heart and Julius' clock.


End file.
